This invention relates to mail piece generation facilities, and more particularly to method and apparatus for connection of any of a plurality of user stations to such facilities on a Local Area Network (LAN) in order to generate mail pieces by implementing a plurality of required processes, independently of control, monitoring or supervision by the user station thus leaving facilities of the user station free to engage in other tasks.
Generation of a completed mail piece is a procedure involving several processes which must be implemented after a document has been prepared. Preparation of a document may include printing of the document and packaging the document in an envelope. However, prior to turning over the envelope to the U.S. Postal Service for delivery, several steps are typically implemented by organizations which dispatch large quantities of mail.
For example, the postal service requires placement on the mail pieces of identifying postal codes, such as zip codes, in prescribed formats. Additionally, it is necessary to imprint postal indicia, such as a postage value, on the mail pieces. Moreover, large mail senders who use expanded ZIP code barcodes, or who pre-package and presort their mail, are given a lower postage rate by the postal service because of the resulting time saving for the service. Senders thus typically use such ZIP code barcoding, and presort and package their mail to obtain the discounted postage rate.
Software driven mail processing systems are known which obtain and print zip codes for particular addresses, and specifically which print a barcode (or other form) of the zip code to enable automated handling by the postal service. One such system is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,341,505, which discloses a user station, including at least a personal computer, a printer, and a communication device. The communication device may communicate with a service agency such as a local post office, or a with a LAN, to obtain ZIP+4data for example. The user station further operates with a software module to encode the outgoing mail, by using a user station printer for printing barcodes. U.S. Pat. No. 5,387,783 provides another system for inserting barcode graphics into a mail piece.
Other systems are known for printing postal indicia on mail pieces, as illustrated by U.S. Pat. No. 4,837,701, the contents of which are incorporated herein by reference. As disclosed in the '701 patent, a customer site may include a single server, which includes a secure unit with a capability for accounting for postage values, a central unsecured printer for applying addresses to the mail pieces, and a central secure printer. The server communicates with a post office or a central station which is in communication with the post office. The central station may be the location of a postage meter manufacturer or other accountable organization. At the customer site, the server may be connected with a plurality of work stations. Each work station may include an inserter and a local unsecured mail piece printer.
Interconnection between the server and work stations may be implemented as a form of multitasking, where the server directly controls operation of a number of separate printer-inserter combinations. Alternatively, slave units may be associated with the various work stations. The slave units may be implemented as sub-servers, duplicating the components of the server though not within a secure housing, and contacting the server rather than the remote central station contacted by the server.
Control interconnection between the work stations and the server involves transfer of data including process control codes, postage information, headers and authorization numbers, for example, and permits the various work stations, which are located on a network at the customer location, to act independently of each other.
Still other systems are available for sorting large numbers of mail pieces based on various criteria, such as postal codes. One such bar code sorter is illustrated in U.S. Pat. No. 4,868,757 as being used in a post office.
Each of the above described systems, however, operates independently of the others, requires individual attention of a user, and occupies the user's equipment during operation.
A proliferation of desktop computer facilities at all levels of a modern office environment has resulted in increased demand for easy access to mail piece generation facilities from users'desktop computers. Because it is impractical to purchase the above described mail generating facilities for each of many user stations distributed throughout a customer site, or to provide a complete mail generation facility having printing, postal coding, and presort capabilities for each of the user stations, there is typically provided a single, centralized, mail piece generation facility serving a large number of users. However, such an arrangement does not satisfy demands for access to the facility at each user station.
In an attempt to provide mail generation capabilities at various desktop PC stations some customers have invested in both training and technology of the type described above, including facilities for implementing appropriate data access and sharing, postal coding and presort for getting postage discounts, as well as for implementing advanced printing and finishing of mail pieces. As above noted, however, at present there does not exist apparatus for providing each of these (and other) capabilities, in an integrated fashion, to each user station at the customer site, without costly and undesirable duplication of equipment. Instead, each of the above described elements must be separately used at, or accessed from, a central facility in order to implement a mail piece generating operation.
Thus, even when all the above features are available to users at such customer sites, the users at the individual user stations may rely on the central facility to process mailing tasks, postage generating tasks and the like. Drawbacks result when a central facility must be used to implement mail generation, in requiring that the user (or a designated employee) collect mail pieces at the workstation, transport the same to the central facility, and wait for the facility to become available to perform its functions.
Desires for increases in flexibility and for reductions of time loss and turn-around time have resulted in a need to improve such a mail handling operation, and to provide for each user a direct and immediate access to the mail piece generation facility, without requiring the user to leave his or her work space, or to wait for appearance of a designated mail courier or availability of the central facility. The present invention addresses this long felt need.
With presently available technology such a need may only be met as noted above, by providing access at desktop computers of the various work stations to several individual mail generation capabilities. For example, with present technology there may be provided at each user station various pieces of equipment and software to implement, under control and supervision of the user, the various separate mail processing tasks performed by remote central equipment, including a printing process, a postal coding process, and a presort process.
Central equipment including these separate facilities may be connected to each user via a local area network (LAN). FIG. 1 shows a configuration which could be used to implement such an approach. In such a configuration the above described duplication of equipment would be eliminated. However, as shown in FIG. 1, in order to generate a mail piece the user must control communication with several mail generating modules at a remote (central) mail piece generating facility, not shown, via a LAN 10 which then controls a printer 12 at the user station. Such control of the printer may be implemented by a network server 14 of the LAN, which communicates with a computer 16 (such as a personal computer, or PC) at the user's workstation in accordance with an operating mail module to drive printer 12.
However, as shown in the figure, the user continues to be responsible for monitoring and/or control of the mail piece generation process. That is, the user must run each piece of software required for each step of the mail piece generation process. For example, the user must access and control a known postal coding module, a known presort module, a known printer driver, and a known network driver while connected with the LAN. Little is automated for the user. Thus, even if such a mail generation capability were provided at a user's desk by LAN connection to a centrally located facility, this approach would tie up the user's computer and printer for the amount of time it takes to produce all of the mail pieces, a process which could take several hours.
In each of the above described possibilities, the user must either operate each piece of equipment, or remotely supervise operation of each piece of software, required to implement the various processes associated with mail piece generation. Moreover, even where duplication of equipment would be eliminated by use of a LAN, the user's workstation, including the computer and printer, nonetheless remains connected to, and occupied by, the mail piece generation process. Thus, equipment present at the various user stations is unavailable for other tasks.